1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to installing or updating a printer driver. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for dynamically installing or updating a printer driver on a computer device at the time of printing, without requiring a user to initiate the installation or update.
2. Background and Related Art
Drivers are currently employed in computer system configurations to interface between devices and software applications. Each device typically employs its own set of specialized commands that are known only to the driver corresponding to the device. In contrast, software applications typically access a device by using generic commands. Thus, in order to perform a task, a driver typically accepts a generic command from a software application and translates it into a specialized command that is understood by the device used to perform the task.
One example of a device is a printer that is configured to selectively provide text and/or graphics on paper. A printer may utilize one of a variety of techniques, including striking a hammer or pins against an ink ribbon, spraying ink at a sheet of paper, providing a chain of characters or pins that print a line at a time, pushing heated pins against heat sensitive paper, or utilizing laser beams, liquid crystals, or light-emitting diodes to produce an image on a drum. Each type of printer utilizes a particular printer driver, which feeds data to the printer with the use of specialized control commands established for the printer.
A user installs/updates printer drivers that are accessible by the computer system. In one technique, a printer driver is installed manually by employing an install program to transfer a copy of the printer driver from a storage medium (e.g., floppy diskette, compact disk, etc.) to the computer system. While this technique allows for the installation or updating of a printer driver, the technique suffers in that the user must know where to locate the printer driver, manually install the driver, be aware that an updated version of the printer driver exists, and reboot the computer system. Further, the installation/update of a printer driver may not be performed while the computer system is printing.
Another technique utilizes a web site as a common location for obtaining a printer driver in the performance of an installation/update of the printer driver. Typically, the website is provided by the manufacturer of the printer driver to enable a user to visit the website and download an updated version of the printer driver. Once downloaded, the user may invoke an installation program and manually install the updated version of the printer driver. While this technique facilitates the ability of a user to locate a printer driver, the user must still manually install the driver, be aware that an updated version of the printer driver exists, and possibly reboot the computer system. Moreover, the installation/update of a printer driver through the utilization of a website cannot be performed while the printer driver is locked in memory (e.g. while printing).
Thus, while techniques currently exist that are used to install or update a printer driver for use in a computer system, the techniques require the manual installation of the driver, the knowledge that an updated version of the printer driver exists, and possibly the rebooting of the computer system after the printer driver has been installed/updated. Further, current techniques are unable to install/update a printer driver while the printer driver is locked in memory (e.g. while printing).